Tuesday 17 July 2007

Flankers

On Sunday we had a surprise visit from the crew of our Flank station in Poole. These lads rarely get out of the harbour so for them it is a real treat to sail on the wide open sea. They claimed to need to have a good run to drain their reserve diesel tank. I recon they just wanted to come our way to nick some of our shouts (not that we would notice at then moment)! Anyway, as ever it was a delight to see them and share a cup of coffee over a few 'dits'.

We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We're sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.
When the balls whistle free
O'er the bright blue sea,
We stand to our guns all day;
When at anchor we ride
On the Portsmouth tide,
We have plenty of time to play.

(Gilbert & Sullivan)

2 comments:

Mart said...

Just out of interest. How long would it take the flanking crew to travel from their station to yours?

lifeboatjohn said...

Perhaps 20 minutes, probably less. If you imagine they were on exercise in the swash channel they were probably only 10 minutes away from our slipway.